THE SEASON OF 1885 IN IRELAND. 3 
Utterly disloyal and imbued with communistic ideas as the 
Kerry men are,—and who can expect otherwise from the kind of 
newspapers that they read and believe in,—I was delighted to find 
that the great majority of the older generation are as kindly 
disposed and as naturally well-bred as the Irish of the west and 
south generally used to be in olden days, so that the naturalist 
or artist.may freely trust himself among them in the wildest 
portions of the country. Nevertheless I should advise circum- 
Spection in choosing one’s quarters. But I have wandered 
rather far from my subject. 
The month of June was very fine and sunny, but I soon 
found that, let the weather be what it might in the daytime, at 
sunset the north-east wind, which was most persistent, made 
itself felt; and no Lepidoptera flew, or could be attracted to 
flowers, sugar, or light, with the exception of a few Demas coryli, 
Arctia menthastri, and a few common Noctue at sugar in the 
heart of the forest. Such pup as I had from the preceding 
year hatched out, however, in due course, perhaps a little late; 
so that I was driven to the conclusion that moths must have been 
at least normally plentiful. In the daylight, however, I had fair 
success at beating out Geometers; and such butterflies as 
frequent those parts were plentiful, as Z'hecla rubi, Huchloé 
cardamines, Argynnis paphia, &c. This experience was fully 
borne out by Mr. Willets, of Sheffield, who was collecting at 
Markree Castle, Co. Sligo. He was utterly at fault in the 
months of May, June, and July, not taking a single one of 
several species of Noctuee, with which last year he had filled his 
boxes in the same woods; nor had he, as I had, any success with 
Geometers and day-flying moths, for which I cannot account by 
meteorological causes. I need not, therefore, explain that I was 
unsuccessful in meeting with Notodonta bicolor, an example of 
which was taken here many years ago by Bouchard, then in the 
employment of the Natural History Department of the British 
Museum. A report is spread also that some two summers since a 
specimen was found by a labourer, and sold for ten shillings to a 
naturalist then staying at a hotel in Killarney, who inserted 
a note of his acquisition in some magazine or serial. Can any 
reader of the ‘Entomologist’ verify this, so that the occurrence 
of this rare species in Kerry may be further authenticated ? 
Bouchard’s insect seems to be well remembered there, as I have 
